I am very well known in my area, I worked hard as a county councillor. I was part of a council that has done all the right things – kept tax low, cut costs, improved services. My Ukip opponent, charming man though he is, doesn’t even live in the area. They’ve never been here before, but they took ten seats last night.

So we have to ask ourselves, how on earth has this happened? For Ukip to come from nowhere like this, you have to ask, what is going on?

There is a problem with the people at the top of our political parties. They just don’t listen. They don’t listen to ordinary people or our concerns.

The European Union referendum is a good example. They all promise a referendum, but come the time, they change their minds and say ‘You don’t need a referendum”.

David Cameron says he’ll have a referendum, but no-one believes a word he says. I don’t believe a word he says, and I’m a lifelong Conservative.

Then there’s immigration. Whenever anyone brings up immigration, they are fearful they are called racist, they are called names, and no one likes being called names. People tend not to voice their views, they are afraid to speak.

There are a lot of concerns about the right to free movement that comes with the EU. It doesn’t seem right that we can’t do anything about it. To be told that as a free sovereign state, we can’t make that decision ourselves, that is a worry.

The Ukip messages chime with everybody, but they have done the Conservatives most harm, and I think that’s our own fault in a way.

For some unknown reason, David Cameron and his advisers seem to think that a lot of Conservative voters’ values are out-of-date and need to be modernised and thrown out.

These are values that we have held true to for years, and now they are being ditched.

We stood up for things in the past. We don’t stand up for anything any more.

Alexis McEvoy was the Conservative councillor for the South Waterside ward of Hampshire County Council until yesterday.